Page 26 - July Hawaii Beverage Guide

WhaT TOP OPeraTOrs are DOing TO jazz uP Their LisTs
By liza B. zimmerman
s restaurants expand their by-the-glass (BTG) options, many naturally aim to be smarter in managing and merchandising them.
For wine-centric operations this may entail utilizing the Coravin system for expensive pours; for large operations it may include
glasses marked for portion control; and for small operations BTG may be their secret weapon for repeat business.
Less Can Be More
The temptation to offer a dozen or more wines BTG is strong. But every wine you add by the glass has to be handled; and Schlesinger-Guidelli feels that less really can be more. “I had a momentary expan- sion across a number of lists I was writing,” he recalls. “Then for the sake of managing inventory, cost, staff education and ulti- mately the quality of the wines, I began to shrink the offerings BTG more and more.”
Date Those Bottles
Two givens: everyone on the team should know how long BTG wines have been open and previously opened bottles always need to be checked. “None of our by-the-glass wines stay open for more than two days and the sommelier team checks open bottles daily for spoilage,” notes Samuel Barickman, the sommelier at Zuma Japanese restaurant in New York. Besides the obvious reason of gauging freshness, the dates make it easier to track slow movers that might need to be rotated out.
Different strokes for different scopes, but in general sommeliers and beverage directors are striving to orchestrate their glass pours more carefully than ever. Here’s a peek at what some resourceful and inspired beverage pros are doing to enliven a BTG program without investing signi cant money and training.
The Automatic, Cambridge, MA
Flexibility Can Pay Off
“If I don’t have something by-the-glass that a guest is looking for, I will look to pop a bottle of something on the lower-end of the bottle list and pour a glass or two,” says Tom Schlesinger- Guidelli, a restaurant consultant who works with a handful of restaurants in Cambridge, MA, including The Automatic. Customer satisfaction from a seemingly spontaneous ges- ture to offer just a glass is the stuff memorable dining is made of. Besides, Schlesinger-Guidelli adds, “Most likely there is another guest in the restaurant that is looking for the same thing and I can pour off the rest of the bottle.”
freshening
up [BTg] gLAss Offerings